Although, as the omnipresent Spirit, God may be
worshipped in all places of the universe, which is his temple,685685 Comp. John 4:24. yet our
finite, sensuous nature, and the need of united devotion, require
special localities or sanctuaries consecrated to his worship. The first
Christians, after the example of the Lord, frequented the temple at
Jerusalem and the synagogues, so long as their relation to the Mosaic
economy allowed. But besides this, they assembled also from the first
in private houses, especially for the communion and the love feast. The
church itself was founded, on the day of Pentecost, in the upper room
of an humble dwelling.

The prominent members and first converts, as Mary,
the mother of John Mark in Jerusalem, Cornelius in Caesarea, Lydia in
Philippi, Jason in Thessalonica, Justus in Corinth, Priscilla in
Ephesus, Philemon in Colosse, gladly opened their houses for social
worship. In larger cities, as in Rome, the Christian community divided
itself into several such assemblies at private houses,686686ἐκκλησίαι
κατ̓
οἷκον, Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor.
16:19. which,
however, are always addressed in the epistles as a unit.

That the Christians in the apostolic age erected
special houses of worship is out of the question, even on account of
their persecution by Jews and Gentiles, to say nothing of their general
poverty; and the transition of a whole synagogue to the new faith was
no doubt very rare. As the Saviour of the world was born in a stable,
and ascended to heaven from a mountain, so his apostles and their
successors down to the third century, preached in the streets, the
markets, on mountains, in ships, sepulchres, eaves, and deserts, and in
the homes of their converts. But how many thousands of costly churches
and chapels have since been built and are constantly being built in all
parts of the world to the honor of the crucified Redeemer, who in the
days of his humiliation had no place of his own to rest his head!687687Luke 9:58.